"WHAT sort of system could you have that would leave a garda outside Tom Casey's gate and outside everyone else's gate?"

The senior garda is concerned that the recent spate of killings in rural Ireland could be blamed on the way the force operates. His reference is to the death of the 68 year old Galway farmer found dead in his home last week.

The "rural crime wave" of recent weeks has occasionally been blamed on policing. It has been suggested that rural policing policy may have contributed to a feeling among criminals that they can rob, maim and kill with impunity. In particular, it has been suggested that reducing opening hours at some rural garda stations has left communities feeling unprotected.

But as the senior garda suggests, there is no system of policing which can ensure that rural attacks and murders will not take place. The most that can be asked of the Garda is that if there are one or more gangs specialising in these attacks, the systems are in place ensure that they are apprehended as quickly as possible.

A new rural policing policy was formally introduced in the force in September 1991. The theory behind the new policy was that there was little value in having a garda rooted to a station when he or she could be out on the beat, talking to local residents and observing any strangers in the area.

As the Garda Commissioner, Mr Patrick Culligan, pointed out in 1994: "It is generally perceived that if a Garda station is open for 24 hours a day, every day, the people served by that station somehow get a better service. The reality is that the more stations we keep open to the public for longer periods reduces correspondingly our ability to patrol the streets."

THE rural policing scheme, known in the force as Community Policing in Rural Areas, was introduced cautiously in deference to its political sensitivity. The issue has been equated with the closure of rural post offices. The closed post office is enough to generate a feeling of isolation in a rural community; that the Garda station will also be unmanned can seem to signal the end of all links with the outside world.

The scheme is aimed at making the best use of communications technology and transport in rural areas.

The gardai and sergeants of outlying towns and villages report to district and area headquarters, which are always open. From there, officers are sent to open local stations for a number of hours. The rest of the time is spent patrolling. The opening times of stations are posted up and outside those hours, the "green "man" telephone outside allows immediate contact with the nearest headquarters, which, can then contact the patrol car by radio.

When it was introduced, critics of the scheme said what would be missed would be the community garda who builds up local knowledge simply by being available to chat to residents. But criticism of the scheme, now standard throughout the State, had died down until the recent spate of attacks began. Senior officers remain very enthusiastic about it.

The level of crime in rural areas - before the recent spate of attacks - has remained relatively low. In 1994, rural areas reported levels of serious crime running at between seven and 20 crimes for every 1,000 people. Dublin's north inner city, by contrast, recorded a crime rate of more than 208 crimes for 1,000 people during the year.

Although crimes against the elderly started to rise at the end of last year, the trend had previously been downward. In 1984, there were 432 attacks on people aged 65 or over. By 1988, that had fallen to 118 attacks and 1994 the figure was 69.

But the call for rural stations to be reopened has been revived. "The closure of the village Garda barracks and the removal of a Garda presence from the countryside is the major factor contributing to rural crime," Mr Frank Allen, president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association, said.

That assumption - that closed stations means "removal of presence" - has been rejected by the authorities. But the need for some change has been recognised. At the beginning of December the Minister for Justice, Ms Owen, announced that the Garda would have a new regional command structure. The 23 divisions in the State would be brought together in six regional commands, a measure aimed at improving the Garda's ability to track crimes across divisional lines.

WHAT now concerns senior gardai is that the current series of rural attacks will lead to a kneejerk response which might appear attractive in the short term, but ultimately prove ill conceived. Hence the agreement between the Minister and the Garda Commissioner, Mr Culligan, that a "special tactical team" of gardai would confront those involved in the current crimes. How it will work - or how close it is to being set up - is not yet known.

However, it emerged yesterday that the Emergency Response Unit, backed up by an Air Corps helicopter, is already being deployed in the hunt for Mr Casey's killers. The hope is that such measures will prove more effective than longer opening hours in rural stations.